Bank Execs Give Sneak Peek at 3Q — It's Not Pretty
September 17, 2013 9:24 AM
The third quarter is nearly over, and the news from the trenches is bad. Loan demand is weak. Mortgage volatility caught many bankers off guard. And the only way to make a buck is to buy or sell assets, executives said at the recent Barclays Global Financial Services Conference in New York, the American Mortgage Conference in Raleigh, N.C., and elsewhere.
Related Articles:
(Image: Thinkstock)
Lukewarm Lending
"Loan growth is not robust by any means."
Kevin Kabat, the vice chairman and CEO of Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB) in Cincinnati
I've Seen This Movie
Comerica's slowdown in lending is "broad-based in the markets that we serve and the businesses where we are. ... It's hard to tell with just a couple of months really versus a longer term, but we've seen it before."
Ralph Babb, chairman and CEO of Comerica (CMA) in Dallas
Customers Still Anxious
Commercial customers are "very, very concerned about the future of the economy, about taxes, regulation, insurance" and are reluctant to borrow.
Kelly King, chairman and CEO of BB&T (BBT) in Winston-Salem, N.C.
(Image: Bloomberg News)
The Interest Rate, Er, Rise
"We were preparing for a transition, but we weren't quite prepared for it to happen that suddenly. We were planning on going up a mountain, but it turned out to be Mount Everest."
Kenneth Sykes, president, North State Bank Mortgage, Raleigh, N.C.
Relearning a Lost Art
"We are doing a lot of training for our officers, sitting down and talking through how to become salesmen again," Ken Irvin, mortgage department manager, Bank of Tennessee in Kingsport, said in discussing its shift from refinancing back to purchase mortgages.
(Image: Thinkstock)
Ray of Sunshine
Paul Greig, chairman and CEO of FirstMerit (FMER) in Akron, Ohio, was more upbeat about consumer and commercial lending because "we've seen a robust pickup in the manufacturing sector across the Midwest."
Hunting Big Game
"It is our intention that our next deal will be a large deal."
New York Community Bancorp CEO Joseph Ficalora said at the conference.
(Image: Michael Chu)
What Else Is There to Spend On?
"There is an obligation to employ excess capital," Umpqua Holdings (UMPQ) CEO Ray Davis said in discussing his deal for Sterling Financial (STSA). "You raise it, you have to do something with it."
Unloading MSRs
Mortgage servicing rights are proving costly for banks, and there are many nonbanks that want to buy them, "so the market's much more attractive from our perspective" to try to sell them.
Tim Sloan, chief financial officer of Wells Fargo (WFC)
